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Creating this as a new post, may try to go back and edit this so that all the information is in a single post not in replies below.
For those reading this for the first time, we have an Alliance for Dads, and a separate channel on the Discord server for daily chats.

IF you get a Captain America offer for 100 shards and want to spend that money it is probably the best start for a minimum amount of $.
Now for those starting the game and wanting recommendations:

1) Spend power cores on energy refreshes, don't worry about refreshing nodes or stores2) Characters to pursue:Wolverine is good as a starting character, you get 5 shards a day just for completing the daily tasks.
Figure out if you want to go for any of characters that I will call 'event' characters - if that is what you want to pursue, that is going to set your priorities. Avoid minion characters as much as you can early on, focus on heroes and villains. Currently Star Lord, Iron Man, and Fury are all event characters, Guardians/Ravagers, Shield, and Kree Minions respectively are required to unlock them respectively (require all teams at a given star level to complete the level, characters unlock at 5*)
3)Mercenaries are necessary for the Payday event. Deadpool if his raids come around works, Bullseye and Korath, are currently the other villains you can use. Merc Riot Guard is easy to get from stores. Picking up another 1-2 of the minions will get you into that event for credits fairly quickly.
4) Hand characters - Catalyst events. Hand characters are used in the Catalyst flash event, so you probably again want a basic team at 3? stars or so just to get some additional resources when the event hits. However unless you luck out with Nobu, only Elektra is a villain and not a minion.
5) City Heroes (Defenders and Punisher?) new event coming, for ability materials. Defenders just got a re-work, so they may be a viable Blitz and Raid team as well.

Other characters have been available through flash events (Storm, Rocket, Ms Marvel), so have a wide roster with decent power (10-12k power characters) can benefit you for those events.

Blitz: Try to grab a synergy team as soon as you can, but Arena team will work okay. Youtube is your friend for Blitz strategies to maximize your points

Raid teams: Raid teams likely will start out being your arena team, with a healer in place of character #5. This is where Night Nurse shines. Participation in the raid means you get rewards, the amount of damage you do will set which rewards you get. If you get started early, raid currency might be best spent on raid character orbs, to increase the number of characters you have unlocked, while the blue/purple gear orbs build up your stash of gear. After a certain point you will want to stop buying the raid character orbs to grab specific gear pieces out of the store (Advanced Phosphates in my case)
Currently I am running Ms Marvel and 4 Hero Brawlers (Gamora, Wolverine, Deadpool, Spiderman) as my primary raid team. There are other teams that you can find, you want some healing to minimize the use of raid packs, and maximum synergy.

Other things to be added as I think of them. Other MSF players probably have several different options.